Depression/Anxiety and Substance Abuse the Illness and addiction people experience these days.

Depression/Anxiety and Substance Abuse the Illness and addiction people experience these days.

Today i had the opportunity to attend a work shop involving Depression/Anxiety and Substance Abuse Hosted by SADAG which means The South African Depression and Anxiety Group.

A little group of 15 people gathered inside the Noluthando hall to attend the work shop. The talk started off by telling us more about SADAG involves and how SADAG can assist when help is needed for the community all contact numbers and Sms free of charge.

The first talk given was by Thandiswa talking about Depression and how depression effects society and how ill Depression could make a person when effected by this Illness. SADAG does a lot of workshops especially at schools cause they found most suicides comes from Depression,usually between the ages of 12-18 years.

DEPRESSION can be cured she said all we need to do is to rise awareness,depression involves your body,your moods and your thoughts. It affects the way you eat and sleep the way you think about things in the world. Depression is not the same as ordinary everyday blues or sadness that we feel sometimes,it is not a sign of weakness and it cannot be wished away. People with depression cannot just pull themselves together and get better.

Thandiswa told us then that there are two Illness Systems of DEPRESSION -Moodiness and Tiredness. Moodiness that means that they are overly excited or manic feelings and behavior which could also be called Bipolar Disorder. Sometimes the mood changes happen fast,but most often they happen slowly over a few days or weeks. Another sign of Depression is Tiredness meaning feeling tired the whole and just bot in the mood to do anything. Some people may even have Insomnia which means they font sleep for Days.

She then went on discussing and asking us what are the systems of depression?A few answers from the attendees were:Sadness-most of the time feeling over anxious.

Loss of sleep which leads to insomnia

Losing weight by not eating or weight gain by over eating.

Less energy then usual tired all the time

Thoughts of death or suicide:suicide attempts

And Physical symptoms that don’t respond to treatment such as

headaches,stomach pain,back pain and so more.

Guilt Feeling what have I done to deserve this?

Thandiswa also informed us that Depression is treatable,assist were you can because knowledge is power empower yourself to learn more about depression. To treat depression,talk to people cause depression takes you away from people get professional help, get help from support systems like your church. Self help can help you cope better and last for a long time. A few tips were given to us on how to help yourself:Understand what depression is the more you know the better you will cope.

Do things to keep yourself busy your mind.

Avoid substances like smoking,drugs and alcohol.

These are only a few to mention about self help when it comes to depression. Depression is one of the most treatable mental illness and 8 out of 10 people get totally better.

The next talk we listen to was about Substance abuse presented by Mpumi it was a very good talk she told us all about substance abuse How it changes the way you feel and how it can change your life forever,because the more you use of it the more of a desire you have and cant stop yourself. The biggest abuse of substances these days are the usage of cigarettes and alcohol,because you end up using more then you suppose to.

Mpumi told us the serious effects of substance abuse to mentioned a few:Moodiness,sniffing non stop,smells. Selling your personal stuff to have monies to buy substances is another bad effect. Prostitution to have monies to satisfy your needs and many more bad effects that can effect your life and the outcome of it.

The only way to fight a bad habit is to have support,support from your church,family and also people surrounding you in your everyday life.

I found these talk very interesting and Im looking forward to spreading the word.

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Posted: October 3rd 2012 08:08